Tuesday, August 14, 2012

HURRY! The Thameslink Consultation ends soon

To object follow this linkAs local councillors Monica Coleman, JayneMcCoy and I are very concerned about the continued reduction in train services
from Sutton and Wallington and the failure to extend services to our area in
the past. Opportunites have been missed to extend the East London Line
(Overground) to Wallington and beyond. The Tramlink extension hasn’t materialised
yet and our trains will be overcrowded for many years to come.

Now we face another cut to our
services. If they go ahead, the changes will mean
that our Thameslink trains will stop at Blackfriars with no through trains to Farringdon, St Pancras International and Luton
Airport. And this at a time when the Mayor of London has just introduced a local tax on development by
the to pay for Crossrail – which won’t benefit local
commuters.

The Campaign Group fights
for the retention of through services from the loop line. This group is made up
of elected members (MPs, AMs and Councillors) from the four south London
boroughs on the loop line route.

The consultation closes on 23rd
August so please write to register your objections to the Thameslink changes. You can email your views or objections to the changes to the
Department for Transport here

Here is our response to the consultation.

Use as
much or as little of it as you wish in your own reply:

Response to the Department for Transport Combined Thameslink Franchise
Consultation

1. We are the elected Liberal Democrat
Councillors for Wallington South Ward, which is served by Wallington Station.

2. Councillor Colin Hall set up the
Thameslink Loop Line Campaign Group in 2009 in response to th South London
Route Utilisation Strategy proposals. The Campaign Group fights for the retention of
through services from the loop line. This group is made up of elected members
(MPs, AMs and Councillors) from the four south London boroughs on the loop line
route. The Group will be submitting a separate response on this issue.

3. Wallington South is largely residential
and contains the second largest district centre in the London Borough of
Sutton. The town centre has recently undergone significant improvements and
investment.

4. A large number of our residents
commute daily into central London for work. From our correspondence with local residents
it is clear that a large number of people commute to stations north of
Blackfriars, including Farringdon / Crossrail, St.Pancras and St Albans. Many
of our residents chose to move to the London Borough of Sutton because of its
excellent public transport connections but tell us that these have been eroded
over time.

5. Residents of the Ward also tell
us they consider they value the direct service from Sutton and Hackbridge to
St. Pancras International, for Continental Europe, and Luton
airport.

6. As local councillors we are very
concerned about the continued diminution of train services from Sutton and
Wallington and the failure to extend services to our area in the past. For
example the East London Line (Overground) stops at West Croydon when it could
have been extended to Wallington or beyond.

7. We are also concerned that the
investment in Crossrail is being funded by the Mayor of London’s Community
Infrastructure Levy which taxes development in our area without any tangible
benefit for our residents.

8. We are also concerned that long
term ‘overcrowding maps’ for train routes around London show that Sutton will
be amongst the last to benefit from plans to resolve the problem. It is
unacceptable that our commuters have to suffer significant overcrowding for
longer than other areas.

9. Councillor Hall visited the
engineering team and Blackfriars in 2011 and was told that whilst it was
technically possible for trains from Sutton to continue to use the Snow Hill
tunnel it would reduce the number of trains that can pass through the tunnel
and delay other (new) services. On the basis of this discussion we are
concerned that Network Rail considers that the new routes are already decided.

10. Despite the “engineering view”
(above), we are pleased that Theresa Villiers, the Minister of State for
Transport has indicated in a letter to Councillor Hall that no decision has yet
been made.

11. We are also disappointed that
the draft South London Route Utilisation Strategy did not mention the planned
changes to the Wimbledon loop. As a consequence the council, councillors and
local residents did not have an opportunity to comment on the proposals.

12. Terminating Wimbledon Loop services at Blackfriars would result in our
residents losing their cross-London service. This will penalise those of our
residents who have made their residential, employment and educational location
decisions on the basis of the existence of the cross-London Thameslink service.
Many residents, who chose to live in the London Borough of Sutton on the basis
of an existing pattern of transport connections, would lose a service that they
have had for many years, and based their life around. It will also have an
impact on those who commute to Sutton. This will potentially have an adverse
impact on the local economy.

13. Any decision should take
account of the impact of changes on the travel patterns of existing passengers,
and of consequent requirements to change established travel patterns. It is
because of the impact on Sutton residents that we object to any proposal that
would result in terminating Wimbledon loop trains at Blackfriars.

14. The proposed changes will remove a valued connection with Eurostar
and domestic long distance trains at St. Pancras International and Kings Cross.
Our residents will have to change trains at Blackfriars, carrying possibly
heavy luggage onto already crowded trains. This movement could be particularly
difficult from the western bay platform when travelling north and to either bay
platform when travelling south because of the platform lengths and the position
of lifts and stairs at each end of the platforms. The recent Passenger Focus
passenger survey found that having to change trains was a strong disincentive
to train travel.

15. Sutton is identified in the
London Plan as one of only four Metropolitan town centres in south London, with
a large and growing population and employment base. It is a major business
centre with many commuters and business travellers. It is therefore essential
that Sutton, as a strategic south London destination,
retains its connections to central and north London and beyond, and maintains its direct
link to St. Pancras and the City.

16. We also believe that the attractiveness
of Sutton to employers considering re-location away from expensive offices in
central London
would be affected. Sutton is a location from which one can travel to Brussels
with just two train journeys, one taking 45 minutes and one two hours, and the
journey to Paris is only fifteen minutes longer. We have been successful in attracting
businesses to Sutton and this change would have a negative impact, particularly
given the expected mushrooming of international train travel from St. Pancras
over the next few years. These negative effects would impact on Sutton residents
who want to work locally in Sutton.

17. We thus strongly object to any
proposal that would result in terminating Wimbledon
loop trains at Blackfriars from 2018.

18. We are aware that Sutton
Council and the Thameslink Loop Line Campaign Group are submitting comments,
and support those comments. However, we are making this submission to draw
particular attention to the impact on our residents in Wallington South Ward.

Here is the news:

Wallington South Councillors

About Me

I’ve lived in Sutton for over 30 years. In that time I’ve worked for companies like Sainsburys, BOC & HSBC. My children were all born in St Helier Hospital and went to local schools. I am a Director of Living Streets, the pedestrians charity that encourages walking for fun and health and an observer on BioRegional at BedZED. It has been my priviledge to serve on Sutton Council for over 16 years. During this time I’ve been responsible for many services ranging from education to planning and waste & recycling to street cleaning. I’m proud to have been responsible for making Lib Dem run Sutton one of the greenest Councils in London. As Deputy Leader of the Council I’m leading the work to make the council smaller, more efficient and focussed on serving you. I’m determined to ensure that our borough weathers the recession well. And I will continue to work with the GLA, Transport for London and our MPs to bring investment to Sutton. I’ve had some success and locally this led to a major project to improve Wallington and similar projects in Hackbridge and Worcester Park. I’m now leading the councils work to bring trams to Sutton linking local people to jobs and boosting the local economy.